Solidify your relationship with your dealers with dealer advocacy

Dealers are an important part of your brand. They are the face of your brand; they represent your company to your customers and to the general public, and as such, they constitute a part of your business worthy of extraordinary attention. 

The success of your dealers depends on a lot of things, including your relationship with them — how strong it is and how smoothly it allows information, news, knowledge, and insights to flow between you two. And that’s what we’re going to focus on in this article: how to solidify your relationship with your dealers to maximize their impact and efforts but also to leverage their presence – physical and online – to boost sales and grow awareness.

Investing in the marketing of your dealers is not only a smart decision, but it’s also the only decision if your company wants to remain competitive in today’s fast-changing world.

3 essential ways to strengthen your relationship with your dealers

• Keep an open line of communication. First of all, it’s important for your distributors to be kept up to date with your work and products, operations, and campaigns. They are the frontline sellers of your brand, and guaranteeing smooth and consistent communication is vital to making the collaboration a successful one. 

What’s also crucial in terms of communication is that they feel like their input is valued and asked for: they have first-hand experience of selling your products to the end customers, and their feedback and opinions are actually of great value to you, providing insights into your consumers’ behavior. With an open line of communication, you will be ready to connect with your dealers easily, and they will also appreciate their opinions being taken seriously.

• Consistently and regularly exchange relevant content. Content is king if you want to have even a remotely relevant social media presence, and nowadays, a social media presence is a must for any company that wishes to stay relevant in the market. Consumers do their research online before purchasing something in the physical shops — that’s where the importance of having a strong presence on social media can come in handy. 

Chances are, your dealers have a Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram page where they post content about the brands and products they keep in-house, promotions, tips & tricks, or general information — this is something that not only builds thought leadership and expertise but also establishes a trusted network of clients that rely on them. 

Regularly providing them with content about your brand and products will ensure you maintain a consistent brand image on social media and are also able to access their network of faithful followers and boost your own sales.

• Offer training opportunities. Successful dealers need up-to-date product information and straightforward, accessible training opportunities to make sure their expertise and product knowledge are always relevant. As a brand owner and supplier, offering tailored training to your dealers can play to your advantage as you build up their skills and knowledge and your brand image while at the same time positioning yourself as a leader in the industry.

If you’d like to take this one step further, training opportunities could also extend to social media training: as we mentioned earlier, social media is a prominent channel for traffic generation, community building, sharing expertise and knowledge, etc., providing training to your dealers to strengthen their skills is a win-win deal that will massively benefit both you as the brand owner and them.

Why dealer advocacy is the game-changing solution to build and solidify dealer relationships

When we talk about dealer advocacy, we refer to an advocacy program where the dealers of a specific brand owner act as ambassadors or advocates for that brand, specifically on social media.

If improving the relationship with your dealers is one of your objectives, then dealer advocacy will be a game changer insofar as it will allow you to create a dealer or reseller community to exchange product feedback, input, content ideas, operational changes, and measures, etc. while at the same time leverage the network of trusted customers and non to boost your brand image on social media and your sales in physical shops.

All of the things mentioned above — from communication to training — are easily and efficiently achievable through a dealer advocacy program. And the best part is, if you look for a tool to launch your program, you will even ditch the hustle of having to keep track and measure everything manually.

Why you should invest in the marketing of your dealers

Investing in your dealers can only bring you benefits — and we’re even moving beyond the main goal of improving your relationship. Building a dealer advocacy program will significantly impact your business in a positive way, giving you that competitive edge your competitors are missing out on.

Companies who rely on dealer and distributor networks to sell products also rely on them being the local face and experts for their brand, which is why it is to your advantage (and theirs) to give them the tools to represent and promote the brand consistently in the best way possible. Dealers and distributors provide that personal relationship that builds loyal customers and, ultimately, increases sales — so why wouldn’t you want to also improve your own relationship with them?